Would-be buyers were told they could visit a Ticketmaster affiliate called TicketExchange, where ducats were going for nearly $1,000 apiece - roughly four times the face value of the best seats in the house.

Meanwhile, TicketsNow, a controversial subsidiary of Ticketmaster, was selling tickets for up to $1,884 each.

"This seems to be the kind of sleight of hand we have come to expect from Ticketmaster and it cannot be allowed to continue," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

"Time and again, Ticketmaster appears to be going out of its way to prevent concertgoers from paying face value for tickets."

Ticketmaster is in trouble in Canada for fleecing fans: The Canadian culture minister is tightening anti-scalping laws and a $500 million class-action suit has been filed against the company.

Fans of Cohen, the gravelly voiced 74-year-old poet and ex-Buddhist monk most famous for writing "Hallelujah," were uncharacteristically up in arms.

"Ticketmaster? Their heads should be on pikes in the town square," said Bryan Brown, 53, an editor at Scholastic.

"I logged on at the precise moment when tickets were supposed to go on sale only to be told there was nothing available at any price," he said.

"Somewhere, something in the system is corrupt. They couldn't have sold out in under a minute."

That's just what happened, says Ticketmaster.

"It happens with such blazing speed these days," said Ticketmaster spokesman Albert Lopez. "There was a lot of demand. There was a huge profile piece [on Cohen] in the Sunday Times a few weeks ago, and he hasn't toured in forever."

Lopez insisted the pricey ducats on TicketExchange are kosher because he said they were not originally offered for sale at a lower value.

That's what got the firm in a jam last month, when 2,000 Springsteen fans complained they were diverted to TicketsNow to buy tickets at steep markups.

The company hastily settled a suit with New Jersey for $350,000, reimbursed the fans and promised to stop linking to TicketsNow for a year.

The controversies come as Ticketmaster tries to get a government okay for its proposed merger with Live Nation.

Schumer, a leading opponent of the merger, said the Cohen debacle shows Ticketmaster's quasi-monopoly must not be allowed to grow further.

"It raises serious questions that a company which already controls the vast majority of the nation's concert ticket sales might get bigger by swallowing up one of its competitors," he said.hkennedy@nydailynews.com